Biblical Hebrew Forum

["stoneyb" <stoneyb AT touchwood.net>]

Isaac writes
"Language, spontaneously developed, extended by consensus (no books,  
no schools), must be inherently very very simple and systematic. This  
should be the primary axiom of Linguistics, I think."

Isaac, I invite you to substitute, say, "Society" and "Sociology" ... or
"Agriculture" and "Agronomy" ... or "Religion" and "Theology" for
"Language" and "Linguistics" in these sentences. Homo faber, it seems to
me, has generally evolved his tools by trial and error, snatching after
the manner of Levi-Strauss' bricoleur at whatever resources happenstance
presents and not troubling himself too much about elegance and
simplicity. The "primary axiom" is likelier to be the great engineering
mantra "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."


Stoney Breyer
Writer/Touchwood